When a legend like Slash decides to make a solo album, he doesn’t do it by half, enlisting his friends to help him out, Slash has created what will surely go down as one of the greatest and most diverse rock albums of all time.

The album starts with a bang with Ghosts featuring The Cult lead singer Ian Astbury. This is a fantastic way to begin the album, the chorus seems to sum this whole project up with the line: “Kill the ghost, that hides in your soul, Rock ‘n’ Roll.” As expected the guitar work on this album is stellar, then again, Slash very rarely disappoints.

Up next is Crucify The Dead, with the legendary Ozzy Osbourne on vocals, on first listen this song seemed to be an anti Black Sabbath song, but after reading into it, it is Ozzy’s view on the demise of Guns n’ Roses. This is a great track with haunting lyrics and one of the best vocal performances from Ozzy in a long time.

Surprising, one of my favourite tracks on this album is Beautiful Dangerous, featuring Fergie from the Black Eyed Peas. This song shows Fergie has really versatile voice, she really can sing!

The two tracks on the album featuring the amazing voice of Myles Kennedy, Back From Cali and Starlight are also great. Myles is, in my opinion, one of the greatest singers in all of rock music, it’s no wonder he was considered for the job in Led Zeppelin.

Doctor Alibi, featuring Lemmy, is a rocked up Motorhead song, and you can’t go wrong with that. Lemmy isn’t the best singer in the world, but his voice suits the music and his lyrics are amazing!

Watch This, an instrumental jam, featuring Slash’s bandmate in Velvet Revolver Duff McKagan and Foo Fighterds main man Dave Grohl, is possibly the weakest track on the album, musically it is great, but it doesn’t offer much to the album as a whole, and at some points, it sounds exactly like (Velvet Revolver track) Slither.

Nothing To Say, featuring M Shadows of Avenged Sevenfold is possibly the most “metal” track on the album. It has a sinister intro and the main riff is very Metallica-esque. M Shadows, as usual, offers a great vocal performance and the chorus is brilliant.

The final track on the album, We’re All Gonna Die, Featuring the legend that is Iggy Pop, is superb. It’s a fun, catchy and hillarious rock song. Iggy’s lyrics are brilliant: “I wanna, I wanna, I wanna whip it out and pee on the ground!” for example. This is a great way to end the album, it just shows how much fun it must have been for Slash to make this album.

I haven’t written about every track, but in all the album is definitely a must buy. If you call yourself a rock fan, then this album should be in your collection!

Alter Bridge posted the following update on their as yet untitled new studio album:

“We are pleased to inform you that the recording of our third album has been completed. It was an amazing journey and we believe that the songs that we have created are our most inspired and dynamic work to date.

“We all worked very hard on these songs, over a long period of time, and we are all fiercely proud of what we have recorded.

“We have played some of the rough mixes of the songs to a few of our ‘trusted ears’ and they are telling us that we have absolutely topped the ‘Blackbird’ album. The true test will come when we get to hear what all you fans think and we are very much looking forward to that day.

“The next step in the process will be mixing, which will begin in mid-April, in New York. The mixing will probably take a few weeks and once that is finished, we will begin the difficult task of deciding which songs will make the album. The goal is to release the album in September, before our planned October tour in Europe that will start in the U.K.”

So, lately Slash and (Alter bridge Frontman) Myles Kennedy have worked together a lot. Kennedy sings on the Slash album and Slash will play on Kennedy’s solo album. Slash has just announced that Kennedy will be singing on the Slash tour as well:

“I want to announce that Myles Kennedy is going to be fronting the band for the upcoming tour. Something I’m really stoked about.”

All I can think when I hear this news is, Velvet Revolver still don’t have a singer… Myles Kennedy is a fantastic singer… maybe I’m adding one and one together and getting a million, but my theory is that this is a try out for Velvet Revolver. Once the tour is over, give it a few months and my money is on Kennedy being announced as new VR frontman.